Gravity
From billy carts to tin toboggans, steep slopes were a source of pleasure for the kids in Kit Sleeman’s neighbourhood. By Kit Sleeman ROSE Lodge Nursing Home rests on a low, inconspicuous hill on the...
Watery wonderland
Wonthaggi’s stormwater drains were a constant source of surprise and adventure for kids, writes Kit Sleeman By Kit Sleeman THE township of Wonthaggi is built mainly on a hill. To be precise, a hill...
Night-time visitors
Kit Sleeman looks back to an age of real service when fresh milk and bread appeared on the kitchen table every morning as if by magic. By Kit Sleeman MY VERY earliest childhood memory involves an illness...
Earthly treasures
Foraging for mushrooms was one of the great autumn pleasures, and a profitable sideline, for a young Kit Sleeman. By Kit Sleeman I DIDN’T like eating mushrooms, but I eagerly anticipated mushroom...
The miners' picnic
Kit Sleeman recalls a memorable miners’ picnic at Cowes, enlivened by a foul-mouthed ventriloquist and a storm-tossed voyage home. By Kit Sleeman THE trade picnic was a great old Australian tradition....
The great space race
As the Americans and Russians battled for supremacy in space, a young Kit Sleeman scanned the skies from Wonthaggi. By Kit Sleeman EVERY Saturday afternoon I used to go to the matinee at Wonthaggi’s...
Sounds of silence
From his sickbed, Kit Sleeman listened to the sounds of Wonthaggi. More than 50 years later and far away, they are still vivid to him. By Kit Sleeman WHEN I was five years old I had a botched tonsillectomy....
The Liberal who nearly went down with the ship
Between 1901 and 1959, Wreck Beach at Harmers Haven proved the undoing of a mammoth whale and two sea captains, including Wonthaggi’s most hated man. By Kit Sleeman THE Wreck Beach near Harmers Haven...
Elephant hunting in Wonthaggi
For the children of small towns, a travelling circus was the stuff of dreams. Kit Sleeman recalls the days when small boys stalked elephants in the Wonthaggi scrubland. Corner of McBride Avenue and...
The Sannes of Kilcunda
By Kit Sleeman THE Sannes were a pioneering family of Kilcunda. Sanne is a name Swedish in origin and my Great Aunt Millie, born in the 1880s, was the last Australian family member to remain in contact...